COMMENTARY:
Every Indigenous Peoples' Day, we celebrate the strength of our ancestors, the beauty of our cultures, and the resilience of our communities. We honor generations who fought to preserve our languages, traditions, and identities despite centuries of violence and oppression. But as we recognize Indigenous Peoples' Day on October 12, we must also confront a painful reality: our relatives continue to experience violence, disappearances, and murder at alarming rates.
We cannot truly honor Indigenous peoples while failing to protect Indigenous lives.
As a Pueblo woman, mother, survivor, and first-generation cycle breaker, I know that safety is more than a basic right. It is the foundation of healthy families, strong communities, and future generations who deserve to grow up without fear.
Yet across New Mexico, families impacted by the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Relatives (MMIWR) crisis continue searching for answers, demanding accountability, and fighting to bring their loved ones home.
Behind every missing person is a family whose world has changed forever. There are mothers waiting for daughters, children missing parents, and siblings searching for relatives. Their grief does not disappear when headlines fade. Their fight for justice does not end when public attention moves elsewhere.
For more than 30 years, the Coalition to Stop Violence Against Native Women (CSVANW) has stood alongside survivors, families, Tribal Nations, and advocates working to break cycles of violence. Our work has taught us that meaningful change begins when we listen to those most impacted and trust our communities to help lead solutions.
We also know that resilience alone cannot end this crisis.
Families should not have to navigate confusing law enforcement systems, cross jurisdictional boundaries, or exhaust their savings to search for missing relatives. Tribal communities deserve dependable resources, trained responders, and justice systems that recognize the value of Indigenous lives.
Our communities deserve more than awareness. We deserve action, accountability, and lasting investment in prevention.
Indigenous Peoples' Day also reminds us that our people are more than the violence we have endured. We are storytellers, healers, leaders, artists, and cycle breakers. Our cultures teach us that healing is rooted in kinship, connection, and collective responsibility.
That belief is why, on October 24, CSVANW invites our relatives and allies to join our I Will Run for Them 5K, a community gathering dedicated to honoring survivors, cycle breakers, and loved ones impacted by domestic and sexual violence.
We believe movement is medicine. Every step becomes an opportunity to remember someone, uplift a survivor, and demonstrate that no family should carry the weight of violence alone.
As we celebrate Indigenous Peoples' Day, I ask our leaders to invest in prevention, our communities to stand with survivors, and every New Mexican to become part of this movement.
Let us honor our ancestors by protecting our relatives today. Let us celebrate our resilience by building a future where resilience is no longer required simply to survive.
Together, we can break cycles of violence and create generations of healing.
To learn more about CSVANW's work and the October 24 I Will Run for Them 5K, visit www.csvanw.org.
Tiffany Jiron is the Executive Director for the Coalition to Stop Violence Against Native Women (CSVANW) in Albuquerque, NM.